I'll See Your Judge And Raise You Two.

Here's something you may find hard to believe. I know I did, at first. To begin with, almost all states Supreme Court justices must "run" for office and in many, they either must stand for reelection or at least must stand for a confidence vote. Keep them or make them run for another turn against another or several opponents. Well just like national politics, like the presidency, there are now appearing SuperPACs, almost always against some justice or other. These SuperPACs are always trying to unseat a justice because he or she voted against their favorite case. But the thing is, with SuperPACs, the money is secret. And these anonymous donations to these PACs can come from anywhere. So a Justice in Michigan was up against nine million dollars in outside SuperPAC funds. In the past, these races ran with little or no money being spent. What it comes down to is that State Supreme Courts around the country have already been hit by these attacks in states like Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and coming soon to Florida, Wisconsin, West Virginia and a state near you. Maybe your own. What's so different between state court justice races and the presidency? Well the president represents all of America, while a state Supreme Court justice rules over cases only in that state. If that's so, then how come people from another state get to have any say it this race? That could be a case for the Supreme Court. But even within the state, is it a good idea for these justices to have to go begging for money to run an expensive campaign? Who do they get money from? A senator or Governor can ask for help from his constituents, but the only constituents a judge has are the folks who may or will bring cases before him or her to decide. Is that a good idea? Hi judge. Remember me? I gave you a thousand smackeroos for your campaign. Not guilty. Well, okay, what's the answer? I didn't say I had the answer, but there must be one. How about selecting a committee of lawyers and plain citizens or handsome and attractive citizens to select two candidates for any open seat on the court. No campaigning and no advertising of any kind, but in each county, a question and answer session for the two candidates. At election time, the people vote for whichever they want. It's not perfect, but it's fair. Of course, corporations and the wealthy would complain that they are not allowed to have their constitutional rights to free speech. To which I suggest they stand up in their boardrooms and exercise their free speech. The wealthy have their country clubs.